Email marketing by the numbers

As a marketer, you already know: email marketing is hotter than ever. Study after study shows that consumers still rely on email, they’re just using it differently. Get ready for some statistics that will make you fall in love with email marketing all over again.

Photo: Benchmark, by flickr member Tim Green

Email marketing is alive and kicking

We’ve all heard the stories. Tales about about how no one uses email anymore, about how entire organizations have implemented collaboration systems that render the inbox obsolete. The kids on Snapchat tell one another that email is for old people, and your friends stay in touch via chat and social platforms.

Every platform has a purpose. We may not use email for absolutely everything anymore, but it remains a big part of our lives. In the midst of all of these changes, email has prevailed and reinvented itself.

The inbox has reinvented itself

We may use email differently, but it remains a key part of consumers’ day to day. We rely on email to keep track of our purchases, our bookings, and our itineraries. And we ask for our favourite brands to send us shiny updates, so we know what’s on sale and when that new item is hitting the shelves.

And the numbers are impressive

There are statistics to back it up:

72% of consumers say email is their preferred way to communicate with companies – MarketingSherpa

And those are just a few numbers. We could quote more, but you get it.

Let’s benchmark

It’s almost impossible to come up with a one-size-fits all benchmark for email marketing. Different verticals have wildly different strategies and response rates. What’s more, organizations inside these verticals can also show wide variations. Some companies have mastered the art of email marketing. And others, quite honestly, still have a lot of work to do.

That said, here are some industry benchmarks gathered by emfluence, covering January 1 to December 31, 2015.

Overall metrics, across all 22 industries surveyed

Open rate: 22.17%
Click rate: 3.74%
Click to open rate: 11.73%

B2B versus B2C

Business-to-business saw better success with email marketing than business-to-consumer. B2B companies saw a 23.84% open rate and 5.27% click rate. B2C on the other hand had a 21.84% open rate and 3.58% click rate.

Highlights from key consumer industries

Vertical

Open Rate

Click Rate

Click to Open

Apparel

16.81%

2.30%

10.11%

Healthcare

18.63%

3.36%

11.20%

Hospitality

21.61%

1.56%

5.70%

Retail

21.79%

5.45%

17.56%

Technology

23.69%

3.17%

9.28%

How do your email marketing campaigns measure up? Are you doing everything you can to build your list, target your messaging and optimize your content? In a future post, we’ll share some tactics to help your click, open and conversion rates surpass industry standards.